To keep a trader at your Palworld base, let a visiting merchant reach an accessible Palbox, reduce its health without killing it, and throw a Pal Sphere. Once captured, open Palbox management, place the merchant in an active base slot, and interact with the deployed NPC to open its shop. A merchant sitting in storage is not an active shop: it must be deployed.
This is a useful trade-off rather than a free convenience. The merchant occupies a slot that could otherwise hold a working Pal, and capturing a human can trigger wanted status and PIDF guards. The capture and wanted-response behavior is documented by community guides rather than an official mechanic explanation, so treat the procedure as version-sensitive and recheck it after major patches.
What does “keeping a trader” mean in Palworld?
Keeping a trader means capturing a merchant NPC and assigning that captured character to an active base slot. The Palbox stores the captured merchant, but storage alone does not create a shop at your base. The shop becomes available only after you deploy the merchant and interact with the NPC.
There are two separate decisions:
- Capture decision: whether the merchant’s current stock is valuable enough to justify the combat and wanted-status risk.
- Slot decision: whether a permanent or recurring shop is worth one active worker slot at that base.
If you only need one emergency purchase, buying the item and leaving the slot for production is usually the more sensible use of a developed base. Keeping a trader makes more sense when its supply answers a shortage you repeatedly encounter.
What should I prepare before trying to capture a merchant?
Prepare the base, the capture attempt, and the wanted response before you lure a visitor into the area. A little setup prevents a valuable merchant from dying in a crowded production site.
Build an accessible temporary base
Use open, reasonably flat ground around the Palbox. The visitor needs a clear route to an interactable position; dense foundations, furniture, walls, and production clutter can leave an NPC unable to reach the place where you need to fight and capture it.
A temporary Palbox is preferable when you are repeatedly looking for a particular visitor. The current guide recommends a low-investment setup because dismantling a live base can affect structures tied to that Palbox. Do not use an important production base for repeated visitor rerolls unless you are prepared to repair or reposition anything that is affected.
Have capture and combat supplies ready
Bring Pal Spheres and enough combat capacity to lower an NPC’s health precisely. The objective is not to defeat the merchant; it is to leave the target alive long enough for the sphere throw. Clear nearby hazards and keep a route open so you can respond when guards arrive.
Reserve an active slot
Before the attempt, check that the destination base has an available active slot. After capture, the merchant must be deployed there to function as a shop. That slot will not be available to a normal working Pal while the merchant occupies it.
How do I get a visiting trader to come to my base?
Visiting merchants appear randomly. You cannot select a named trader from a menu or guarantee a particular specialist by rebuilding a Palbox.
Use the practical visitor-refresh method
- Place a Palbox in an open area with a clear approach.
- Wait for a visiting merchant to appear and reach the base.
- If the visitor is unsuitable, dismantle the temporary Palbox and rebuild it in the same place.
- Wait for the next visitor check. Community guides describe roughly five minutes as a practical waiting interval, not a guaranteed timer.
Rebuilding the Palbox can seek a different visitor, but it does not promise a particular merchant tier. It also does not reroll individual items inside a selected stock table. Use the method as a way to look for another visitor, not as a reliable way to manufacture a specific item.
Because the timing is not guaranteed, avoid building a large base around this process. Keep the temporary site cheap, leave room for the NPC to stand, and inspect each visitor before starting a risky capture.
How do I identify the right merchant before capturing it?
Check the merchant’s name and displayed stock first. Specialist visitors cover different supply families, so the best trader is the one that solves a recurring bottleneck rather than the one that happens to be present.
| Merchant supply family | Examples reported by guides | When it is worth keeping |
|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Ammo and related ammunition supplies | You regularly spend more time making or sourcing ammunition than producing other base goods. |
| Medicine | Medical supplies | Your play pattern creates a continuing medicine shortage. |
| Crops and produce | Crop seeds and produce | The stock fills a repeated farming or ingredient gap. |
| Cooked food | Prepared food | You need a dependable food purchase for a base or expedition routine. |
| Meat and animal products | Meat and other animal products | Buying the listed goods saves recurring hunting or ranching work. |
| Pal materials | Organs, leather, bone, and High Quality Pal Oil | The materials are repeatedly blocking crafting or upgrades. |
AllThingsHow lists these examples, while the v1.0.3 tables summarized by Gamers.Wiki group visitors by similar supply families. Stock can be more valuable than the NPC’s label: read the actual shelf before committing to a capture.
Use a shortage test
- Frequency: Will you open this shop repeatedly, or is the need a single purchase?
- Substitution: Can your base produce the same item with less effort?
- Capacity: Is one worker slot worth the time saved?
- Risk: Is the stock valuable enough to justify a wanted response?
Make this assessment before lowering health. Once combat starts, a mistake can kill the NPC or bring guards into a congested base.
How do I capture a trader without killing it?
The community-documented method is to lower the merchant’s health carefully and throw a Pal Sphere while the NPC is still alive. The researched guides do not provide an official explanation of human-capture mechanics, so the following is a practical report rather than a developer-confirmed rule.
- Separate the target. Move the merchant into open ground away from production objects, other NPCs, and hazards.
- Reduce health gradually. Use controlled damage and stop before the target is at risk of dying. Avoid area attacks or effects that can continue damaging the NPC after you stop attacking.
- Throw a Pal Sphere. With the merchant still alive, make the capture attempt. If the attempt fails, reassess the target’s health before applying more damage.
- Clear a path to the Palbox. A captured human can trigger a wanted response, so do not leave the NPC in a crowded work area while you search menus.
Do not treat a merchant like an ordinary wild Pal encounter. The target can be a valuable specialist, and the consequences of a human capture include wanted status and PIDF guards. A Black Marketeer may also fight back, making the capture more dangerous than a routine visitor encounter.
What happens after I capture the trader?
Capturing the NPC is only half of the process. You must deploy the merchant from Palbox management before the shop is available.
- Open the Palbox management menu at the base where you want the shop.
- Select the captured merchant from storage.
- Place the merchant into an active base slot.
- Leave the Palbox menu and approach the deployed NPC.
- Interact with the NPC to open the buy or sell interface.
The merchant now functions as a base shop. The occupied slot is not available to a normal working Pal, so compare the convenience of on-site trading with the production, hauling, or crafting work that another worker could provide.
What if the shop does not appear?
- Confirm that the merchant is deployed in an active slot rather than merely selected in storage.
- Check that the NPC has spawned in an accessible position and is not trapped by structures.
- Approach the deployed character and use the interaction prompt; the Palbox placement itself does not open the shop.
- If a wanted response is active, move to a clear area and deal with the guards before trying to manage the base.
These checks address the most common distinction in the current guide: a stored merchant is not an active shop.
Can I reroll a merchant by rebuilding the Palbox?
You can use a temporary Palbox to seek another visitor, but rebuilding is not a guaranteed reroll system.
What rebuilding can do
Dismantling and rebuilding the Palbox in the same place is described by community guides as a way to prompt another visitor check after a wait of roughly five minutes. It can produce a different visitor, which is useful when the current stock does not match your shortage.
What rebuilding cannot guarantee
- It does not guarantee a particular merchant tier.
- It does not guarantee a named specialist.
- It does not reroll individual items within the selected stock table.
- It does not establish a universal spawn or inventory timer.
Use a low-investment Palbox for this process. The v1.0.3 guide warns that dismantling a live base can affect structures tied to that Palbox, so protect valuable construction by keeping the reroll site separate.
Where are the fixed merchant locations?
PalWorldCalc’s 2026 database lists 29 fixed merchant locations. The database divides them into four groups:
| Location category | Number of fixed locations |
|---|---|
| Pal Merchant | 10 |
| Wandering Merchant | 8 |
| Black Marketeer | 7 |
| Medal Merchant | 4 |
| Total | 29 |
These fixed-location figures describe the database’s recorded points, not a promise that every visitor to a temporary base will use the same stock or behavior. A fixed location can be useful when you want to shop without rebuilding a base, while a captured trader is useful when a recurring purchase justifies dedicating a base slot.
The database count does not establish exact inventory quantities, refresh behavior, or a universal rule for how a captured merchant’s stock changes. Treat those details as version-sensitive rather than assuming that every location follows one schedule.
Is keeping a trader worth losing a worker slot?
The answer depends on repeated use. A trader is a convenience and supply solution, not a replacement for a production Pal.
| Decision axis | Keep the trader when… | Use the slot for a worker when… |
|---|---|---|
| Supply match | The displayed shelf fixes a recurring ammunition, medicine, food, crop, meat, or material shortage. | The stock is unrelated to what your base consumes. |
| Frequency | You expect to open the shop repeatedly. | You need the goods only once. |
| Opportunity cost | The time saved by buying outweighs the lost production, hauling, or crafting capacity. | Your base is already short on essential labor. |
| Capture risk | The specialist’s stock is valuable enough to justify wanted status and PIDF retaliation. | The same goods are easy to make or obtain elsewhere. |
| Build stability | The behavior still matches the current game version. | A patch has made the interaction uncertain and you cannot spare a slot for troubleshooting. |
A practical rule is to buy one-time supplies from a visitor and reserve a captured specialist for a shortage that keeps returning. This keeps your production base productive while still allowing a shop to solve a genuine logistics problem.
What should I do when the capture goes wrong?
The merchant dies
A dead NPC cannot be captured by the procedure described in the guides. Stop attacking earlier on the next attempt, use a safer open area, and avoid damage-over-time or area effects that can finish the target after you stop controlling the attack.
The merchant cannot reach the base
Rebuild or reposition the temporary Palbox in open, reasonably flat space. Remove route-blocking structures and leave an unobstructed approach to an interactable position. The visitor needs to reach the base before you can inspect its stock or attempt capture.
PIDF guards arrive
Human capture can mark the player wanted and bring PIDF guards. Keep the encounter away from fragile production structures, clear enough space to move, and be ready to deploy the captured merchant from the Palbox once the immediate danger is manageable.
A Black Marketeer fights back
A Black Marketeer may resist instead of standing passively in the capture area. Treat the encounter as a higher-risk fight: use the clear-space setup, control damage carefully, and do not begin unless the displayed stock justifies the risk.
The deployed NPC has no obvious shop interaction
Return to Palbox management and verify that the merchant occupies an active base slot. Storage is not deployment, and a normal working Pal slot cannot be counted as available while the merchant is active. If the NPC is physically blocked, clear nearby structures and try the interaction again.
What is confirmed and what remains version-sensitive?
The current v1.0.3 gameplay guide supports deploying a captured merchant in an active base slot and interacting with that NPC to open the shop. It does not confirm permanent Viewing Cage hosting; reports that a cage can serve as a permanent merchant shop should therefore not be treated as established.
Several details are not established universally in the available guides: exact base-level gates, spawn timers, inventory quantities, and post-capture stock refresh behavior. Recheck these mechanics after game patches. The five-minute visitor wait, the capture behavior, and the wanted response are practical or community-documented reports, not official quotations from Pocketpair or a named developer.
For a stable setup, keep the temporary reroll Palbox separate from your main base, inspect stock before combat, deploy only when the slot cost makes sense, and treat any change after a patch as a reason to verify the procedure again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do merchant inventories refresh after I capture the NPC?
A universal post-capture refresh schedule is not established in the available guides. Inventory quantities and refresh behavior can therefore differ by version or remain unknown; check the shop in your installed version instead of planning around an assumed timer.
Does a captured trader level up or perform normal base work?
The documented behavior is shop service while deployed, and the occupied slot is not available to a normal working Pal. The guides do not establish worker skills, production output, or a leveling path for captured merchants, so do not count on those functions.
Can I keep several captured traders at one base?
Each deployed merchant requires an active base slot. The practical limit is therefore the number of slots available after accounting for the workers your base needs; the guides do not state a separate merchant-specific cap.
Is a fixed merchant location the same as a captured trader?
No. PalWorldCalc records fixed locations for 10 Pal Merchants, 8 Wandering Merchants, 7 Black Marketeers, and 4 Medal Merchants, while a captured visitor becomes a shop only when deployed through a Palbox. The database count does not establish that fixed-location stock and captured stock follow identical refresh rules.